Brochure: $2,750Postcard: $300

Production Time

Brochure, Postcard: 1 weekPosters: ongoing throughout season

Dimensions (Width × Height × Depth)

Brochure: 11.5 in × 18 inPostcard: 4 in × 9 inPoster: 12 in × 22 in

Page Count

Brochure: 16 pages

Paper Stock

Brochure: 32 lb NewsprintPosters: Finch Opaque, 80 lb Cover

Number of Colors

Brochure: 2 SpotPostcard: CMYKPoster: 2 Spot

Varnishes

–

Binding

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Typography

PalatinoEast Bloc

For the 2009 – 10 season of Dallas-based Kitchen Dog Theater, the team at SullivanPerkins got scrappy in more ways than one to make this project work on the reported small budget. The result is an amazingly striking identity and set of materials that looks anything but cheap or limited by the budget. The first item was the brochure, a newsprint tabloid, with all the details of the season and the featured plays, where each of them was illustrated by a different designer. The illustrations were then turned into posters which, as you will read below, were a challenge to produce themselves.

Tied together through the edgy use of Rhodamine Red (yup, fancy Pantone name for Magenta) and black, this campaign has quite the bite.

We were able to print the big tabloid brochure, for instance, by finding a small web press in Dallas (publisher of the Baptist Standard!) willing to print it on the cheap.

The small quantity of posters needed was too costly to print offset, so we learned how to screen print them ourselves. We burned the screens using a $6 Home Depot work lamp hung from a broom stick. We modified a shower with a hose sprayer meant for dogs and washed out the screens in the bathtub.

A big part of the challenge was finding a space to print the posters. We initially made an agreement with the theater to use their rehearsal space, where we printed the first posters crammed amidst props from old plays. Unfortunately, visiting actors were also housed there on occasion. After encountering one in his underwear, we abandoned the rehearsal studio in favor of a designer’s apartment, whose kitchen island was a good fit for our makeshift printing setup.br />We feel that good illustration, design and determination can overcome the tightest of budgets.